The following is the third in a bi-monthly series in which marketing expert Jim Joseph will show entrepreneurs on a small-business budget how to apply marketing strategies used by big brands.

Marketing is all about the kind of experience you deliver to your customers with each and every interaction. The more compelling the experience, the faster you will build brand loyalty. In fact, the experience you build becomes your brand in your customers’ minds.

I’ve spent the last two years learning everything I can about “growth hacking.” I co-run the Growth Hackers Conference with Erin Turner, led efforts to build Udemy’s user base, and consulted/advised companies like Lyft, Wedding Party, TenderTree and Sokikom. Over that time, I’ve worked with some amazing marketers. Recently, we’ve been discussing a new “formula” for growth hacking that has helped us achieve extraordinary results.

So, you’ve built yourself a nice little product. Maybe you’ve raised a small friends-and-family round; maybe you’re still bootstrappin’ on your own. Either way, now you’re looking to raise at least a million dollars to help with the next steps.

While there’s no perfect formula for stuff like this, these stats from AngelList’s Ash Fontana are a pretty good indication of the metrics you should be aiming for.

When Dropbox launched, there were at least half a dozen other "online storage" businesses in existence. The Apple iPod entered a market litered with crappy MP3 players. Google was famously the Nth Internet search engine. Stripe launched into a market crowded with Braintree and Paypal, and before that Authorize.net and others. Uber was not the first way you could order a taxi, although their spin on black cars was unique. Facebook was yet another social network in a market "saturated" by Myspace, Friendster, Orkut, Bebo, Hi5 and others.